Rumors buzz over Higgs boson

[n2doc]

Alan Boyle writes: The mysterious Higgs boson is thought to be involved in the generation of mass in the universe, but so far it seems to be best at the generation of rumors among particle physicists. A new wave of rumors is propagating even as we speak. Has the Higgs boson been detected at Fermilab's Tevatron? It might depend on what you mean by "detected." Or it might merely be a case of deja vu all over again.

Like an earlier case of Higgs boson hype, the latest wave appears to have been generated by Italian physicist Tommaso Dorigo on his blog, "A Quantum Diaries Survivor." Dorigo says he's "heard voices" talking about a Higgs effect that could be nailed down to a three-sigma level of confidence, or 99.3 percent. That's suggestive of a real effect, but not as good as the five-sigma "gold standard" for an accepted discovery.

In his item, Dorigo freely admits he has no idea whether the voices are right, even though he works on one of the Tevatron's two main experiments (CDF). "I know nothing at all, so I can certainly talk about it without violating any rule!" he writes. He goes on to review the work done at CDF and the other main experiment, D0, discussing the possibility that a lightweight Higgs particle might exist. Then he adds this appendix:

"Why am I doing this ? I know several 'serious' physicists and colleagues who have questioned this care-free attitude of mine in the past. What good does it do to shout 'Higgs' every second week ?

"It does a lot of good to particle physics, in my very humble, but not quite uninformed, opinion. I have made this point other times, and will not repeat it here. Suffices to say that, in a nutshell, keeping particle physics in the press with hints of possible discoveries that later die out is more important than speaking loud and clear once in ten years, when a groundbreaking discovery is actually really made, and keeping silent the rest of the time.


more

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/07/12/4664711-rumors-buzz-over-higgs-boson

[Orsino]

1. Update.

Update for 2:15 a.m. ET July 13: Caltech physicist Sean Carroll points to this tweet from Fermilab Today: "Let's settle this: the rumors spread by one fame-seeking blogger are just rumors. That's it."

So the new rumor is that the old rumor was just a rumor.

[tridim]

2. It seems like we're just about to crack this nut, I think it's going to be huge.

My heart jumped when I read your post. Thanks!

[On the Road]

3. Does it Look Like This?

That would be so cool.


http://www.particlezoo.net/individual_pages/shop_higgsboson.html

[damntexdem]

4. But it's so small: how many rumors can possibly buzz over it?

Or is it like angels dancing on the head of a pin?

;-)

[MineralMan]

5. They're quantum rumors.

Duh.... :rofl:

[Igel]

7. Virtual rumors.

The virtual rumor met its virtual anti-rumor, thus restoring the apparently abhorrent vacuum.

[Odin2005]

6. LOL, off topic, but a funny example of a funny cross-language mistake: "Hearing Voices"

I know English is not his native language, but it should be "hearing talk" or hearing discussion", "hearing voices" = "hallucination".

Sorry, just thought that was amusing.